Supreme Court rejects bid to end birthright citizenship
Key Points(5)
- Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by President Donald Trump to end birthright citizenship, ruling that children born on U.S.
- soil are entitled to citizenship under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
- In a 6–3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that children born in the United States “to parents unlawfully or temporarily present” are “citizens at birth,” reaffirming a long-standing interpretation of the amendment.
- The ruling strikes down an executive order issued by Trump that sought to limit automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and certain temporary visitors, arguing they were not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
- The court found that argument inconsistent with the 14th Amendment, which has been understood since its adoption in 1868 to guarantee citizenship to nearly all individuals born in the country.
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by President Donald Trump to end birthright citizenship, ruling that children born on U.S. soil are entitled to citizenship under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
In a 6–3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that children born in the United States “to parents unlawfully or temporarily present” are “citizens at birth,” reaffirming a long-standing interpretation of the amendment.
The ruling strikes down an executive order issued that sought to limit automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and certain temporary visitors, arguing they were not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
The court found that argument inconsistent with the 14th Amendment, which has been understood since its adoption in 1868 to guarantee citizenship to nearly all individuals born in the country. The provision, originally enacted in the aftermath of the Civil War, was designed in part to secure citizenship rights for formerly enslaved people and their descendants.
Justice Roberts emphasized in the majority opinion that citizenship represents a foundational constitutional guarantee.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community,” he wrote. “The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’”
“We keep that promise today,” he added.
The United States has recognized birthright citizenship for more than 150 years, with the principle repeatedly upheld in prior Supreme Court decisions. The ruling reinforces that precedent, effectively closing the door on the executive order’s attempt to redefine eligibility for citizenship based on parental immigration status.
President Trump had argued that children born to undocumented immigrants and some temporary visitors should not automatically qualify for citizenship, but the court rejected that interpretation, reaffirming the constitutional standard.
